i'm back, i'm tired

Jet lag sucks. A day's worth of time in the air to get home ain't all that grand either.

But the trip itself was great. Being with countingpigs was great. The food was great.

The US Department of Agriculture wasn't great though when they took away my yummy treats. :(

I've copied all my pictures to my computer. My little lappy only has 1.5GB of space left on it. I'll need to do a bit of backup work.

I'll post them when I can. This week is going to be crazy.

Countingpigs will actually be coming into town next weekend. Her birthday is on the 10th. And I was out of the country for my roomie's birthday. So I'm thinking a party is needed. Maybe either next Sunday (because countingpigs gets in late on Saturday) or the Friday or Saturday after (she leaves the following Sunday).

Oh, and the Thanksgiving Day dinner with kcprogrammer's family and my family went well. He did a lot of work to prepare for it. I was quite impressed.

OK, must run. More later--hopefully with pictures

in two days

In two days I'll be on a plane home. I'll be happy to be home with my family for thanksgiving. I'll also be sad to be leaving this experience.

I'm not the type to move very far away. Chicago seems like a world away. So, if I can't think of moving to a city that's a mere two hours away by plane, I probably won't be packing up for a relocation to a foreign country any time soon. That said, I have the travel bug.

I love learning how other people live.
I love seeing the sunset behind oceans and seas.
I love listening to the song of an unknown language being hummed all around me.
I love tasting all the different foods.
I love taking pictures of the places I go.

I miss my life and the safety I find in being able to fall into set patterns of waking, working, eating, being.
I miss my people. I miss the security from hugs from my family. I miss the comfort from kcprogrammers hand interlaced with mine. I miss the insight that only my roomie can provide. I miss the connectedness of knowing the inside jokes that come from being a part of my friends' daily lives.
I miss my food. I love the food I've been eating these past two weeks, don't get me wrong. And I'm taking full advantage of the opportunity. But I'm really craving a bean burrito right now.
I miss my bed, my bathroom, my cell phone, my computer and all my comforts.
I miss my life, but I don't regret the decision to leave it for a time. My live is waiting. Two weeks is a short time that, when thinking of the life on hold, can feel like a long time. But most of my life will wait for me, almost as it was when I left.

And in two days I'll be back.

last night's dinner

Leftovers
Originally uploaded by theCallowQueen.

I'm in Singapore. The food is tasty and very different from my usual. Here, I often prefer to eat first and ask later.

I did know that these were frog legs, though, when I plopped them into my soup. They're kept alive in tanks like lobsters or in big plastic bags. This, of course, didn't really whet my appetite, but it didn't hold me back, either.

"It tastes like chicken," Countingpig's friend joked with me.

He's right. The meat from a frog's leg tastes very much like that from a chicken's. The texture is smoother though.

But onto one of my favorite meats: pork. The pork here is amazingly tasty. It's either they're using a different kind of pig or a different kind of flavoring--or both. For lunch it was steamed pork soup dumplings. For an after-dinner bite it was a crispy pastry filled with egg and pork floss. Floss is very tasty, but it's like hot dogs or Jell-O--you don't want to know how it's made or what parts of the animal are used in it.

Oh, and for dessert we had these fried pastries that, when dunked into the juice from our bean curd dessert, tastes very much like funnel cake. Yummy!

test

I'm playing with Blogger's new beta interface. It offers some new abilities at the price of losing many of my HTML and CSS tweaks. I need to figure out whether I can integrate them into the new template.

Oh, but look, I can tag my posts.

word of the day: concatenate

con·cat·e·nate tr.v. 1. To connect or link in a series or chain. 2. Computer Science To arrange (strings of characters) into a chained list.
adj. Connected or linked in a series.
I came upon the word twoard the end of an article I edited this morning. The sentence: A worldwide sports event earlier this year demonstrated the results of a poor concatenation of standards converters.

bottling time

It feels as if I have accomplished more in the last five hours than I usually get done in five days. I want to bottle that feeling of productivity. It's invigorating.

My freelance work has also given me a bit of a professional jump-start. I met with my newest client yesterday over lunch. They like my work. And their client list is growing, so there's potential for more projects to come my way. I have two parts to a long-term project to finish for them before I leave for Singapore.

Add in to this going to the gym and watching a bit TV to decompress with my roomie or with my boyfriend, and you have my life in a nutshell.

And if you're wondering if I've read your blog recently, I haven't. Thanks for reading mine though. (I'll catch up soon. I hope you all are well.)

lost and found

Lost starts up again this Wednesday. My roomie and I are reviving our Wednesday Lost-watching parties.

The show starts at 8 pm, but you're welcome before then. If you want to drop by before 6:30, call first.

A special this-Wednesday-only bonus: My roomie mentioned that her boy may be bringing over some food fixings.

Note to all: You're more than welcome to bring any food or drink items with you. It's great if you want to share. Be advised, we almost never have pop. We have water aplenty, though. We'll even throw in ice at no extra charge.

Note to Lost-haters: You're welcome to come by and socialize if you'd like. If you come over while the show is on, no Lost-hating comments.

Lost about lost? Those who want a quick summary, come at 7 pm. We've got last night's mega two-season recap on the DVR. (Yes, we have a DVR. I know, I'm still recovering from the shock. Sorry, no HD viewing abilities at this time. Maybe with my roomie's next promotion...)

ABC is supposed to show all new episodes for the next six or seven weeks. So, consider this a standing invitation for every Wednesday in October plus a few more into November. Hey, what else do you have to do on your Wednesday evenings?

So what happens if you miss a week? Come an hour early the next week; we'll probably be replaying the episode you missed. Oh, and we do take requests if the price is right.

And pass the word on. The more people we can bring into the cult of the Lost the better.

What's been keeping me busy
OK, so I know this blog has been a bit neglected. I'm busy. I'm tired. I miss my friends.

I'm on a triple deadline right now. US edition goes out today, world edition tomorrow and a supplement the day after.

My freelance work has also been keeping me busy. I've got a new client who likes my work and has passed a sizable project my way. I also had this interview with a custom communications group. I'll let you all know more when, well, I know more.

Things are good with me and the boy (because I know you all will ask if I don't say so). This Saturday will be one year. Now that's a crazy thought--a nice, but crazy thought. I kind of wanted to go to the restaurant where we had our first date. My roomie says that we could go there anytime and to make him spring for a nice meal at McCormick & Schmick's or some place like that. Tempting...

My Singapore trip is scheduled for the beginning of November. Now countingpigs wants me to pick the location of our trip (a week-long trip within my trip). I'm having a tough time deciding where we should go. If I could have a moment to pause in my busyness (and not be brain dead from exhaustion), I would be able to better show my excitement that this is finally working out.

OK, that's all the big stuff, I think. Have a happy Monday!

the debt-free dance

A letter sent to me last week stated:

DEBITS SUSPENDED

Huh? Further down:

Electronic debiting of your Direct Loan payment is being halted temporarily because we granted a deferment, forbearance, or other type of suspension of payments on your Direct Loan(s).

We will send you a Notice when the electronic debiting is to resume for your monthly payment.

Huh? So, I called.
I told the woman on the phone that my payments have been halted, but I hadn't asked for a deferment or forbearance or done anything else to halt repayment. Her reply: Yes, you have.

Huh? She explained: You paid off your loan.

WooHoo! I am debt free! It's kind of an odd thought in this day and age. I owe no one. I am not working to pay for my past. I'm free.

manuscript submission of the day

"I’d like to pique your interest in writing about IPDR - IP detail record-streaming protocol. It doesn't sound very sexy, but it is critical in the cable and telecom industries today."

First, um, sexy? Does this PR person understand this industry? Sexy really isn't a part of the equation.

Second, the redundant nature of "IP detail record-streaming protocol" is driving me nuts. The "P" in "IP" stands for Protocol, so Internet Protocol detail record-streaming protocol is just dumb. And I won't even venture to touch on the capitalization issues here.

I suggested to a fellow editor that it should be renamed as "Detail Record-streaming Internet Protocol," or "DRIP." (Drip also carries a double meaning: a tiresome, annoying person. Hmm. How fitting.)

I actually looked up what this protocol's proper name is: Internet Protocol Detail Record. So, the PR person at least got the acronym correct as IPDR. Still, I think there should be a petition to change it to DRIP.

editing quote of the day

"I suggest that shooting naked is not the best course of action..."

I rarely get to edit such exciting material — about the benefit of "dressing" the front of a camcorder lens with a filter. Next on my editing menu: directional antennas.